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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

there's no reason that piano world can't have its own memorium to apple. if friends and family wish to contribute to the childrens' education, i don't think that whatever this forum feels is a fitting honor for her will take away from that.

No reason, per se, except that there's always the risk that goals will be split and it will be impossible to implement the PW (and?) memorial because of insufficient funds and involvement.

This thread for instance (I realize the Pianist Corner is also open to "Apple" posts now), has gotten only a small fraction of the responses any one of the other four fora have garnered so far.

If the math isn't clear, I'm saying we have here at most 5% of the responses on the other fora put together - granted that there is significant overlap.

Pianos aren't cheap but I think it would be entirely possible to afford one with the whole population behind it (requiring plans about how to go about it). Otherwise, not possible.

Of course, there's also the possibility of paying instead for lessons. Something of this sort was done on WTF (and TNCR"?) for "Wacki Iraqi".

_________________________
If this is coffee, bring me tea. If this is tea, bring me coffee. ~Abraham Lincoln~

While people's hearts are certainly in the right place, it seems more appropriate to me to adhere to the families wishes and donate to her children. This would directly benefit her family in a meaningful way instead of buying a piano for one of thousands of deserving kids that she never even knew.

It's clearly none of my business what other people want to do but that's just my opinion.

this was more along the lines of what i was thinking of too, amanda. an "apple award" --possibly granted annually for the best beginner's forum and pianist's forum performance. something along those lines. we could come up with a modest prize for the honoree.

to me it's about remembering her, and that doesn't have to be about a lot of money.

Helping her family and her children is certainly a good path to walk. And it's also an easy path. It involves writing one check and you're done.

Memorializing, however, is often about keeping a person's memory alive among a group who knew her, and using that memorial to tell others who never knew her what she was like. That's the harder path.

To do it you must build something permanent, which becomes the mechanism of remembrance. Creating that mechanism involves overcoming the "large committee" problem of too many ideas and no process for selecting among them. Every idea for remembering Apple at PW will mean some work for some people, and possibly some judgments. And every possible idea someone lays out will clearly have a potential downside that someone here can imagine (and will articulate at length in a thread like this). Coming to a decision this way is virtually impossible.

If people want to work on a specifically PW memorial, I would suggest that Frank delegate the responsibility of chewing on a bunch of ideas to a small committee. That committee could get open feedback from the board using a thread like this. But at some point, the group should go into private session to evaluate the goals, options, resources, and risks. After weighing the alternatives, come back to us with a decision and a plan.

Piano*Dad, thank you for your thoughtful comments. I will be donating to the family. Unfortunately I am not able to commit time to organizing something at PW, although if others are able to do something I would like to support that as well.

Helping her family and her children is certainly a good path to walk. And it's also an easy path. It involves writing one check and you're done.

Memorializing, however, is often about keeping a person's memory alive among a group who knew her, and using that memorial to tell others who never knew her what she was like. That's the harder path.

To to it you must build something permanent, which becomes the mechanism of remembrance. Creating that mechanism involves overcoming the "large committee" problem of too many ideas and no process for selecting among them. Every idea for remembering Apple at PW will mean some work for some people, and possibly some judgments. And every possible idea someone lays out will clearly have a potential downside that someone here can imagine (and will articulate at length in a thread like this). Coming to a decision this way is virtually impossible.

If people want to work on a specifically PW memorial, I would suggest that Frank delegate the responsibility of chewing on a bunch of ideas to a small committee. That committee could get open feedback from the board using a thread like this. But at some point, the group should go into private session to evaluate the goals, options, resources, and risks. After weighing the alternatives, come back to us with a decision and a plan.

Bravo P*D!

I will be giving directly to the family, but I would be happy to be involved in any memorial committee, if Frank chooses to go that route.

Many good ideas have been thrown out there. Thank you all who have responded. Although I never met apple* in person, we spoke by phone countless times and I consider her a friend.

while i do not have the time right now to be involved in bringing a plan to fruition, i do have an idea to throw out in the wake of frank's thoughtful concerns about judging a competition.

how about ....

every year on apple's birthday (in may), we have a celebration of her life (could be called "apple day") by posting musical tributes to her. these can be recordings of original compositions or recordings of a piece we have finally mastered well enough to perform. it could be a day we look forward to and prepare for all year and an inducement to work harder at the piano and on our music. and it will hopefully inspire others to immerse themselves ever more deeply in the piano.

just one idea which others may wish to expand on or discard, as they see fit...

Forming committees - who would be on it? How would they be selected (members here the longest? The most posts? The loudest? The biggest ego's? The newest members? The least known members? - who knows) Sounds like a quagmire to me. They would then decide what the rest of us should participate in? I'll bet there are already folks planning to be on said committee.

I guess it makes sense to regroup as described, so that we could both (as so desired) contribute to the family's college fund AND work for a memorial on PW - largely honorary and piano/forum focused.

The absence of volunteers to help with the latter, is notable. Perhaps piano players, especially non-professionals, are by nature jealous of their time - already being challenged to squeeze in practice.

Ah, for some dedicated committee women (men) types!

Edited by Ariel (01/14/1304:53 PM)

_________________________
If this is coffee, bring me tea. If this is tea, bring me coffee. ~Abraham Lincoln~

Ultimately, if a committee is to be formed somebody has to set it in motion, and the obvious choice is the moderators and Frank. The moderators administer and Frank owns. I think that group could delegate responsibly to a small set of stakeholders here.

To Roger's point, the number of volunteers is likely to be small, and the owner of the site (as I mentioned above) is a good choice for laying on of hands. Without an appointed group, most likely we will wind up with the loudest and most persistent voices getting their way. Either that or we'll get nothing at all done while everyone says "after you." I do not understand this fear of forming a committee.

I thought this might be a way of our being closer during Mary's Memorial Service. It would be powerful if many of us could be listening at the same time. Or at any time during the day, Tues.

With respect:

In lieu of the ability of most of us to attend Mary's service live, perhaps we can do a service online... Virtual is how many of us knew and loved her. That way we, as her online family, can partake. Together.

I do believe that her timezone is one hour different from ours on the east coast and you probably know your time difference. Her service is at 10 am Tues.